The Last Princess
by Cupcakedoll
Summary: My version of Daphne's death at the hands of the Three Ancestors. One-shot.


A doodle I wrote to combine Daphne's season 5 backstory with the backstory I made up, which has Daphne being a priestess. I liked my backstory and didn't want to throw it out just because Rainbow decided to add some stuff! I do not guarantee perfect continuity or anything.

The temple of the Dragon's Flame rose slim and golden from the bluff. It was a tall building, all spires and pillars and butter-pale marble. The great doors were thrown open to greet the dawn, and welcome any who wanted to visit the sanctuary. But only the priestess stood there today.

Daphne had composed herself, straightened her hair and the fall of her golden robe, and made sure the expression on her face visible under her mask showed only the calm confidence of one who watched the universe for the Great Dragon.

Seeing nobody waiting she sagged a little, her young face growing somber.

It had been nearly a week since the creatures who called themselves the Ancestors of All Witches began attacking realms across the universe. At first everyone had gathered at the palace and the temple, to see what they could send to help, to hear the latest news and share the fear: could the Ancestors be stopped? Would the Ancestors come to Domino? What would happen then? They needed the comfort of seeing that the sacred flame still burned in its crystal bowl and the nymphs carved high on the wall still looked down peacefully. Eight now, the ninth had faded last year.

Even the nymphs with whatever power their existence beyond death gave them, hadn't been able to stop the Ancestors. Maybe they hadn't even tried, Daphne thought traitorously. She shook herself and started singing to keep her spirits up as she swept the floor and seats and cleaned out the vases for flower offerings, taking the droopy ones to the compost heap out back. She was glad to have the quiet time, alone with the daily tasks.

She'd told Shayna and Politea to sleep late this morning. She'd looked so tired, after days of emergency after emergency.

The Ancestors were coming. They would come to destroy the power of the Dragon Fire, because they could never rule the universe while the flame burned. And Daphne's family would be the ones fighting them. Mom and Dad and her Aunties and Uncles. And if they failed, Daphne and Politea would have to defend the realm. They were probably the most powerful fairies on Domino, except for Mom and Aunt Faragonda, and the only sirenix fairies.

It had been a hard quest, finding the gems of loyalty and mercy, and Mom pregnant so she couldn't help, and Dad freaking out because both his girls were doing hard things and he couldn't help either one. It had been scary, but now with the threat of the Ancestor Witches looming over them all, every past quest seemed easy. And it had turned out fine. Daphne and Polli had gotten their sirenix powers with days to spare and baby Bloom had been born healthy and beautiful. Daphne had loved her sister from the first moment the baby looked up at her with those big blue eyes.

Luckily her teachers understood—well, some of her teachers were her aunties, and her other teachers said part of being a priestess meant heeding your own inner voice. And Daphne's inner voice just wanted to help take care of her sister. So she'd babysat while Mom did Important Queen Things, and then while Mom and Dad did Important Company of Light Things. Princess Bloom learned to sleep through the temple noises, the chanting of spells or the hubbub of crowds when a lot of people came seeking healing or wisdom all at once.

It didn't feel right, leaving bloom alone now. Even if she was with Mom and Dad and the entire palace guard. But someone had to open the temple and her friends really needed a break. Shayna would come in later and then if nothing else had gone wrong Daphne could go home. Where Dad and Uncle Hagan would be arguing over how much aid they could send to the worlds the Ancestors had attacked and Auntie Griffin would be trying to convince other witches to fight against the Ancestors.

The fire flared suddenly, and Daphne's shadow jumped bold and dark on the wall. She spun, dropping the broom. The low flame had become a pillar of blue edged in white, stretching up through the ceiling. Daphne gaped. The flame had never looked like this before. It outshone the morning sun.

Something had gone horribly wrong.

Daphne took a deep steadying breath, stepped forward, and pushed her hands into the column of fire.

Images poured into her mind. The Ancestors were in the Infinite Ocean. They hovered around the Pillar of Balance, their presence fouling the water. Creatures fled in terror, all calling alarm, their voices overlapping into noisy chaos.

Daphne yanked her hands back, pulled free from the din.

"Sirenix box! Guardian, wake Polli, tell her what's going on!"

Her guardian appeared long enough to nod, then vanished again. Daphne opened her phone. "Mom? They're in the Infinite Ocean. I have to go."

Marion gasped. "Sweetie!"

"I'll be all right. We have to defend the pillar."

"Yes. Of course you do. We'll be waiting when you get back."

Daphne closed her phone before her mother could hear her sob . She didn't want Marion to know how scared she was. They were sirenix fairies, with the mighty power of the ocean. They might not be able to defeat the Ancestors, but they could chase them away from the pillar.

And out of the Infinite Ocean?

How had they entered the Infinite Ocean? Witches could earn sirenix, but the Ancestors weren't ordinary witches. Not anymore. They shouldn't be able to reach the Infinite Ocean.

Daphne's guardian reappeared. She said, "Please hurry, Princess Daphne. The Pillar of balance is in danger."

Politea projected her voice into the room. "Ready."

"Did you call your parents?" Daphne replied through the spell. They had to hurry, but some things were more important.

"Let's just go." Politea said, and magic flared as she teleported.

It wasn't like Politea, to be so terse. She must be really scared. Of course she was. But as Uncle Hagan said, was not to let fear make you useless. Daphne looked at the angry fire. "Fairy magic! Sirenix!"

And for a few moments she caught handfuls of magic and pulled it around herself like a cloak and felt all her strength and wasn't afraid at all.

The Infinite Ocean burst around them, cool and heavy and silent.

Politea had landed behind a coral-covered ridge. Her ruby-colored wings faded almost to invisibility in the blue light. Daphne sank down next to her friend. It hardly seemed like they needed to hide. Nothing was moving.

The area around the Pillar was empty of life. Floating near the Pillar's top were three... beings. They looked like clouds of fouled water, one more red, the other faintly green, the third black as night. They didn't look human. They'd been human once. Now they were just hate and destruction, smoke on the air and poison in the water.

Politea's pale eyes were wide. "It's them." She mouthed.

Daphne nodded, her hair swirling in the water. "We have to stop them."

"Yes. Of course." Politea stuttered. Maybe she was too afraid to help. But Daphne had no chance against the Ancestors on her own. If the two of them attacked together, maybe they could drive the horrible creatures away. They were hidden for now, but it wouldn't last. "Polli-"

A voice like sludge and rot rang in the water. "The Pillar of Balance holds the laws of nature stable across the universe. If we destroy it, the realms will fall into chaos!"

"Let's, lets!"

Politea covered her ears and Daphne shrank down in their hiding place. The voices made her stomach churn.

"Or we could just..." and the thing loosed a bolt of magic at the Pillar.

The Pillar rang like a bell. Daphne thought the vibrations would shake her bones apart. On a thousand worlds the ground shook and gentle rain turned to storms.

There was no time to plan. They couldn't be allowed to do that again. "We have to stop them!"

Politea gave a jerky nod. "All right! I-I'm with you."

Calling power from the water around her, Daphne pushed herself up and unleashed her spell, "Grace of sirenix!"

A wave of clear light swept from her hands to engulf the Pillar. The hags screamed as the spell fought to purify their smoky bodies. For a second Daphne thought it was going to work.

Then three hideous faces turned towards her. They weren't even hurt.

"A fairy with the power of fire and water."

"A fairy with fire in her blood."

Daphne fought to keep her voice steady. "You are not welcome in the Infinite Ocean! Leave at once!"

"Not welcome?"

"We were welcomed."

"We were invited in."

Couldn't be. The Infinite Ocean wasn't safe, people couldn't just be brought in. Except by Omnia herself.

Or a sirenix fairy.

Daphne turned.

Politea's face trembled, then settled into a smirk.

"Why..?" and the witches struck. The curse ripped into Daphne's magic, shredding her transformation. She sank to the seabed in pain. She tried to gather magic to heal, and found the magic twisting, stabbing her like thorns. The sirenix power itself was being warped out of shape.

Politea realized something was wrong. "You said you'd-" she began, and shrieked as her magic went wrong. "No! You can't do this, I helped you!" Her cry became a roar as her body twisted and changed. Arms became fins, her head stretched grotesquely, and the monster Politea had become fled into the water.

"No more sirenix fairies! We will be the greatest power in the Infinite Ocean!"

Then the top of the pillar blazed green light and power moved through the water.

And Daphne fainted.

The sacred flame roaring in fury.

The Ancestors are coming to destroy us!

Mom and Dad! Bloom! I have to-

"Stay still! You're injured!"

The familiar voice cut through the nightmare. Daphne opened her eyes. She was in a cave full of undersea flowers that glowed with spots of green luminescence. Two finned shapes hovered over her worriedly. "Serena? Nissa?"

"At last! I was beginning to worry you would sleep forever!"

"I need to get home!" Daphne cried, realizing even as she did that she hurt all over and her magic still felt warped and alien. Untrustworthy. She'd lost her transformation and was back in her priestess robe. "What happened?"

Nissa settled down next to her in the leafy bed. "The Ancestor Witches ruined the sirenix power! But with no more sirenix fairies there was nobody to invite them into the Infinite Ocean, and they disappeared. So we rescued you!"

"Thank you!" Daphne sat up and Serena hugged her.

"I was worried about you!" The selkie of the Domino gate chirped.

"I'll be all right." Daphne said automatically. But it wasn't really true. Her sirenix box was gone. The guardian must have returned to Omnia. Daphne would miss her. And she would be back to her enchantix form, when she figured out how to transform again. Which wouldn't be for a while. "I have to... ow... they'll go to Domino. How long was I asleep?"

"All day. I don't know... it got cold, on the other side of the gate. Maybe, maybe it's too late."

"What!" Daphne gasped, sitting up straight.

"Daphne, if the Ancestors have come to Domino, you could be the only one left. The last princess."

Daphne shivered, a strange feeling coming over her. She heard herself whisper, "No, it's not me."

"What?"

"I can't believe that. The Ancestors were too strong for me, but not for the whole Company of Light. Please send me back, Serena."

Serena looked uncertain, but raised her arms and opened the portal. Frost immediately began to form across the blue-white surface.

"I'll come back, I'll see you again when this is over." Daphne said, and jumped through.

She landed staggering and coughing at the sudden transition from water to air. She was back in the temple, Serena had sent her here instead of to the gate in the ocean.

The sacred flame had gone out.

Inside the crystal bowl where it had burned, wrapped in a blanket and dozing contentedly, was a baby.

"Bloom!" Daphne cried, scooping her sister up. Bloom woke up and made contented-baby noises. "Are you all right, sweetie? What are you doing here? It's cold!"

There were bits of a spell clinging to the blanket. Half-finished sections dangling like loose threads of red-gold. Their mother's magic.

The great doors were closed. Daphne pushed one, then had to set her shoulder to it and push. It grated open slowly and freezing wind swirled in. Outside was nothing but snow and ice. The green valley had been erased, covered by a sheet of ice.

Dark clouds boiled on the horizon.

Daphne stared in shock for a moment, then Bloom wailed and Daphne ducked back inside and pulled the door closed. She felt out with her magic but felt no life anywhere. There was no feeling of recent death, but no life either. What had happened to everyone?

"Mom?" Daphne called aloud, sending her voice out by magic. But it didn't work, and the word echoed off the temple's marble walls.

If Bloom was here, that meant there was no one left to protect her anywhere else. The unfinished spell wrapped around her was another portal- not to a specific place, but to people who fit a specific set of circumstances. Daphne didn't have the strength to build a portal for herself, but she could piece the spell together.

_ A world without magic, where the Ancestors wouldn't look for a princess of Domino—a peaceful city where a girl could grow up safely—_

Daphne's magic raced to pull the spell together. She was running out of energy, she wasn't going to be able to fight after this and she couldn't escape into the Infinite Ocean.

_A couple who wanted a baby—who were ready to care for children—who would love her as much as her own parents did, with the same fierce love that didn't care what happened as long as—_

The room went dark.

Poisonous voices coiled down from the ceiling.

"Give us the dragonfire!"

"Give us the baby!"

"Never!" Daphne used the last of her magic to trigger the spell. The portal opened and she gave her sister to the light.

And fell into darkness.

Fell and fell, losing sight and voice and limbs, losing everything that was flesh and bone until what landed was just a spark, a faceless thing of thought and memory.

Am I dead?

It isn't so bad.

Mom and Dad aren't here.

I wish I knew why Politea didn't help me.

The Ancestors won.

They'll hurt more people.

Bloom is safe.

Worth it.

And then she sensed something above her. Something enormously vast, but comforting, like the sun itself was looking at her with approval. The temple felt this way sometimes.

Then the most wonderful warmth blew over her. Instinctively she caught at it, wrapped it around herself. She formed legs and arms, made herself a face again. Formed ears and she could hear, eyes and she could see. Looked down at herself.

She was a statue of living flames. Her new hands flickered orange and yellow, and she could see through them. It was so strange, but it felt lovely and she laughed as she combed newly-fashioned hands through her hair, which came into being as she thought of it.

Then she clothed her new form in her priestess' robe and mask, because she was proud to wear them.

She was underwater. Somewhere in the realms, not the Infinite Ocean. She started to open her wings, realized she didn't need them, and simply spiraled up until she broke the surface.

Someone was waiting, a woman made of fire standing on the water's surface. She wore the image of old battered fighting leathers and a flickering sword hung at her side. She called, "Welcome!"

Daphne walked over to her, across the water, just by deciding not to sink. "This is—Lake Roccaluce! I've been here." On her sirenix quest. The source of sirenix was here.

"Everyone appears in a place they remember fondly. Nice to meet you, princess."

"Just Daphne. I know you!" She'd looked up at this face every day. This was one of the nymphs.

"I'm Chandia. Worked out what happened to you yet?"

"I... the Ancestors killed me. I'm a nymph? That was..?"

Everyone knew the Great Dragon breathed fire over its chosen souls. But Daphne hadn't expected it to happen to _her._ And that meant back in the temple was- a body.

"I have to tell people I'm all right! They'll find—_it_-"

"You can't tell anyone." Chandia's voice was calm. "Most people can't see us. You can speak into their dreams but that's all. The only person you'll be able to talk to for a while is the person you saved, and your sister's till a baby. We're different now. Our job is different. You'll see."

Slowly, as panic faded, Daphne was beginning to feel her new powers. She looked towards the city and found she could see a great distance, see through walls, see people. A student at Cloud Tower with long red hair. She was going to have a baby. The headmistress of Alfea had a letter locked up in a drawer. A man in the city fixing a levibike. A book had fallen behind the shelves in the library. A couple in love were walking in the park.

"All those things are important, but not all to you."

Daphne tore her gaze away from the distant sights and focused on her own hands. "What can we do?"

"Be anywhere. Enter people's dreams. Cast spells. Know things nobody else knows. And we protect the living from things they can't see. You don't have to though, if you want to move on to what's next you don't have to stay in this world. I think I'll be leaving soon; my grand-daughter is older now than I was when I died saving her, and I'm ready to see the rest of my family again."

Strangely, that was a relief. Daphne said, "Thank you. I need to think for a while."

Chandia smiled, "Sure. Just yell if you want company." And she dived up in to the sky, becoming nothing but a trail of light.

The first day, Daphne cried. For Mom and Dad and Bloom and Politea and everything she'd loved that wasn't there anymore.

The second day she tested her new powers. She really couldn't talk to anyone. They couldn't see her. But she wasn't the only creature to walk unseen among the living, and now she could see the strange creatures that walked right through people. Some of them were frightening. This must be part of a nymph's task, making sure these things didn't hurt anyone.

She searched for her parents, and couldn't find them. The spell should have found the bodies, but it didn't. They weren't dead. Just... lost.

The third day her aunts and uncles returned to Magix. They'd found her body. Daphne shouted into their ears that she was _right here_, and Mom and Dad were _out there somewhere, _but nobody heard her. And the remains of the Company of Light fought and yelled at each other and split up, and Uncle Hagan announced he was leaving forever.

Then Daphne searched for her sister. She couldn't follow the portal, but they were connected by blood and she could follow that. The Ancestors would never find Bloom on this strange, almost magicless world. Daphne had never seen a realm like this 'Earth.' There weren't any fairies at all! But the world was so vibrant, so full of life, and the people who had found Bloom were good people. They were doing something official, with lots of paperwork, to make sure the baby they'd found could stay with them.

Daphne watched them for a few days, a ghost in the walls, then she began to feel other things pulling at her. There were things she could do, things she needed to do, in other realms. She couldn't stay. Her magic would shine like a beacon in this empty world.

But there was one last thing to do here. She whispered into the woman's dreams, then her husband's.

"Mike? Sweetie, I know what we should name the baby."

"Funny, I swear I was just dreaming about that. Maybe I'm just worried since we're signing the last papers today. What's your idea?"

"I know you wanted to name her after your mother but—what about 'Bloom?'"

"Huh. Bloom. That's really..."

"It's unusual."

"...perfect. It really suits her."

Daphne smiled, and let herself fade into the morning sunlight.


End file.
